Motivation Archives | jeremyrolleston.com

How bad do you want it ?

Today I have invited a good mate of mine Tim Birch to write the weekly blog. Tim is an inspirational guy and one of those good guys all-round. In many ways we’re cut out of the same stone and we often trade quotes or videos or thoughts. That was why, as expected, I knew he’d come up with something inspiring and challenging. Over to you Tim …

“How often does ‘life’ get in the way of our best laid plans and intentions? So often the things we know we want to achieve get pushed further and further away due to the circumstance we let limit us…

I say ‘let’ because there is always a choice. A choice to say ‘Yes, I’m getting up when the alarm sounds to take a step in achieving my dream’, or ‘Yes, I’ll spend my weekend focussing on my studies’. The alternatives to these two scenarios may be staying in the warm, cosy bed or heading out to see friends for dinner…but at what cost.

You need to make your goals and dreams mean something and often it is only when these things seem like they will be taken from us that we start to really fight for what we want.

The below clip illustrates that, “when you want to succeed, as bad as you want to breath, only then will you be able to succeed”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aowB5wNPvWQ&feature=player_embedded

Don’t tell me how bad you want to succeed. Get up each day and show me. No one will remember you for what you planned to accomplish in life. You will only be remembered for what you actually did.

My challenge – What will you do today ?

Driven by the pot of gold !

This is an extremely interesting video because it speaks of a couple of themes that I wrote about in my book ‘A life That Counts’.

Purpose Driven – each of us is unique. There is no one like us in the entire world. We have unique talents, characteristics, personality and make-up. And that is foundational for us to believe we have been designed for a purpose. Every one of us has an inkling that we were born for something bigger. And that drives us as much as chasing the pot of gold and being driven by money.

Deep Motivation – I have written before about how we are not driven solely by our words and thoughts. That emotions and feelings play a significant role. In fact, our emotions are our strongest, most powerful driver, and often drive us in unconscious ways, well before we are consciously aware of it. eg You don’t need to think about being hungry or tired or scared or embarrassed. These just happen unconsciously and it affects our emotions and our physiology. What this means is that our emotions (our heart) are our primary driver of motivation. This is reflected in deep passion as opposed to conscious motivation (trying to talk yourself into being motivated). That is where the expression comes from – ‘the heart is the strongest muscle in the body’. So never forget that we are driven more by our emotions than by anything conscious. (Knowing your ‘why’ and your purpose are reflections of this). With that in mind, is it such a surprise what this video talks about ? is it such a surprise that the carrot (eg money) or the stick (eg sacking) that most employers try to drive us with are not as effective as they might otherwise think ?

Making a difference – we all have a deep seated desire to make a difference in this world. To leave a legacy. To help others. To live a purposeful and significant life above our own. To live a life that counts ! This is not so surprising. So let’s embrace it and make a difference. For surely the world needs it. And after all – a waterfall starts with a raindrop. Every little bit helps. Be the difference you want to see in the world and let that reflect in your personal world as well as in how that translates into your business world with your staff / colleagues / how you do business.

Fire up and have a great week !

Pure Inspiration II

Kurt Fearley

Well what more do I need to say ?

Pure Inspiration

Ahhhhh – life ebbs and flows and some days we feel good about ourselves and other days we feel bad about ourselves.

Today for me is one of those days. I woke up feeling sorry for myself, without much motivation, without much inspiration for anything. And then I saw this ! …

How can I ever feel sorry for myself. How can I not be inspired. Sure it is a 12 minute video, but those 12 minutes may change your life forever and these images may stay with you for a long time to come (in a good way). Amazing. Encouraging. Challenging.

You’re welcome.

Overcoming adversity

When I wrote my book ‘A Life That Counts‘ there were a couple of people I wanted in the book who I thought were inspirational but for one reason or another couldn’t be part of it. Paul Degelder is one of those inspirational people – a navy clearance diver who was attacked by a shark in Sydney Harbour. Read and watch his story and be inspired …

Sydney Morning Herald, Feb. 11, 2009. A navy diver fought off a shark as it attacked him during an anti-terrorism training exercise in Sydney Harbour, the navy says. Able Seaman Paul Degelder, 31, of the clearance diving team based at HMAS Penguin at Balmoral, is in a serious but stable condition following the attack at Woolloomooloo Bay, in Sydney’s inner east, just before 7am today. A NSW ambulance spokesman said he suffered severe injuries to his right hand and leg and is serious but stable in St Vincents Hospital. Able Seaman Degelder was taking part in the Kondari Trial, a test of new technologies to protect ports and ships from terrorist attack, which began on Monday.A spokesman for the Defence Science and Technology Organisation said it was likely the trial would be cancelled today. A defence spokesman said it was the first recorded attack on a navy clearance diver. He said no shark repellent equipment was used as the equipment was only used in water deemed to be a high risk of shark attack. Sydney Harbour had been assessed as being low risk, he said. There was also no sonar equipment being used.

I defy you not to be inspired by what he’s doing 12 months on and how he has overcome the adversity that he faced (and continues to face). And remember Paul next time you feel like throwing a pity party or skipping your workout. I know I will …

The New Book Unveiled

It’s time to celebrate! Today is the day!

After a year in the making, countless late nights, a lot of learning, thousands of emails to printers / editors / typesetters / contributors / transcribers / graphic designers etc, some soul-searching on my part, a number of very interesting interviews with incredible contributors and so on …

My new book is finally here: A Life That Counts.

It will get launched today, is available on my websites NOW (www.jeremyrolleston.com and www.alifethatcounts.com.au) and will be released into bookstores across Australia and NZ from now on. I could not be happier with the end product. Truly, I am ecstatic and quietly proud.

If you want a handbook and a guide to your future success – this is it.

The book is about following your dreams, regardless of the outcome, and irrespective of what your dream is and how you define success. It is also about HOW the successful actually achieve what they do. Plenty of books tell us what to do, but almost none show us HOW to do it. How do you change your thinking (the psychology) to get changed behaviour because very often our best intentions don’t result in any meaningful change ? What do the successful people do on a daily basis ? How do you discover your dreams ? How do you goal set properly ? How do you develop mental toughness and ignore that little voice in our heads that tells us to give up, or not try, or we’re not good enough etc. How do you get over disappointment ? Many people have dreams but very few are prepared to go after them ? Why ? And how do you get over the fears and mindsets that often hold us back from chasing the dreams we have for our lives ? This is a little taste of some of the topics covered in the book. And alongside this you have the real-life stories of myself and the ten famous and successful Australians to inspire people and give them an insight into how they do it / did it. I want to give you a book that will

1) inspire you

2) you can flick through briefly and yet still take something away

3) is full of real ‘meat’ for those that want to go deeper into the tools, strategies, techniques & psychology of success

4) be an interesting read as you read the behind the scenes real-life stories of myself and the ten amazing contributors.

Here’s the back cover description:

A HANDBOOK FOR YOUR SUCCESS

WITH TOOLS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT IN YOUR OWN LIFE

AND REAL-LIFE EXAMPLES FROM OLYMPIC AND WORLD CHAMPIONS

TO INSPIRE AND HELP YOU BE ALL YOU CAN BE

Many books tell you what success is but don’t reveal how to make it happen. In this book, two-time Olympian Jeremy Rolleston reveals the step-by-step processes, strategies, psychology and techniques used by Olympic and World champions.

Find out how you can use these in your own life to help you successfully follow your dreams, no matter how you define success and whatever your dreams may be.

This is your opportunity to learn from Jeremy and 10 other high-achieving Australians including Dick Smith, Gai Waterhouse, Louise Sauvage, James Tomkins, Lydia Lassila, Matthew Burke, Matt Shirvington, Michael Milton, Jason Stevens and Alexandra Croak. Read their real-life stories – when it’s all going well and when it isn’t! Discover what sets them apart. Learn from their experiences, uncover their secrets, and find out how they’ve used these timeless principles and simple techniques to help them achieve remarkable success.

Practical, thought-provoking and challenging, A Life that Counts will inspire you to chase your dreams and reach your full potential. It celebrates the ‘want to’s’, the ‘choose to’s’ and the ‘dream ofs’ in your own life.

You’ll come away from this book with an exciting vision of your potential along with the confidence, knowledge and tools you need to successfully follow your dreams and live an extraordinary, fulfilled and purposeful life.

I would like to ask your help to make this the success I know it can be:

THE ASK:

I try not to ask for too much on this blog, but today I will ask a favor: if this book sounds interesting to you, please take a moment to BUY it today. Isn’t this a great gift for friends – to help them chase their dreams more successfully, learn from Olympic & World champions and be all they can be?

TO MEDIA, BLOGGERS, AND LIST OWNERS:

I’ve made very few media commitments thus far. Do you have a column, show, mailing list, or blog audience? Would you like to do a feature, an interview, or post an excerpt? Please email me at info@jeremyrolleston.com

Thanks for all your support. Here’s to your future success and here’s to 2011 being your best year yet !

Jeremy

Voices in your head and motivation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEEpn115eQE

Everyone talks about motivation but very few talk about what it is and where it comes from.

This ad shows what it is. It is those deep things in your mind and in your heart that drive you. Those things you think about. And most importantly they are those things that move you emotionally.

You see, let me explain something every quickly to you about your brain. In your brain, the unconscious brain modules (the limbic system) drive your behaviour way before the conscious brain modules (frontal lobes) get involved. They are our strong base, emotional drivers. Why we are attracted to someone. Fight or flight. Fear. Sex-drive. Hunger. We don’t think about these things. They just happen unconsciously. Well before we think about them consciously.

So when something moves you emotionally it is a strong force. That is why one person who has a deep down dream to go to the Olympics and taps into that emotion finds it way easier to get up early and train whereas the person who is tapping into nothing in particular finds it very hard to do the same thing. The difference – a dream. But really – the difference is in motivation. And why is there a difference in motivation ? Because one person is tapping in to those strong thoughts, feelings and emotions that drive them in a positive way.

When people love what they do they rarely seem to lack motivation do they ? So … find what you love. Tap into what you care about an think about ? Channel those deep emotions and let them drive you. Then, your motivation will be powerful and not jsut the conscious positive thoughts that fade easily enough.

Running the long road

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQCY1zPbIZs

This ad speaks of perseverence. Of keeping going when it just feels like hard work. Of picking yourself up again. Of keeping focussed on where you want to go and who you want to be and on what you want to achieve. And I am personally walking that journey at the moment too !

Perseverance is stubbornness with a purpose. It means more than trying. It means more than working hard. It is a willingness to bind yourself emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually to an idea or task until it has been completed. Perseverance demands a lot. It means succeeding because you are determined to, not because you’re destined to. This is important because if you want your dreams to come to pass they wont just happen. To achieve them will inevitably require perseverance.

And if you think about it, perseverance doesn’t really come into play until you are tired and close to giving up. When you’re fresh, excited and energetic, you approach your goals with vigour. But when you’re tired, when you’re over it, when you can’t see how things are going to work, when the obstacles seem insurmountable, when you’re disappointed, when you feel like quitting and when your dream still seems a long way off … that is when you need perseverance !

What highly successful person do you know who gave up ? How many people do you know who have been richly rewarded for quitting ? The greatest achievers don’t sit back and wait for success because they think they deserve it. They keep moving forward and persevere because they are determined to do so. I could give lots of examples here, but let me give you just one – Walt Disney

Walt Disney supposedly had his loan request rejected by 301 banks before he finally got a yes. The loan he received allowed him to build Disneyland, the first and most famous theme park in history. That’s perseverence. And as if that wasn’t enough, Disney also struggled to release some of his now-classic films. He was told ‘Mickey Mouse ‘would fail because the mouse would “terrify women.” Distributors rejected ‘The Three Little Pigs’, saying it needed more characters. ‘Pinocchio’ was shut down during production and Walt Disney had to rewrite the entire storyline. In 1944, at the suggestion of his daughter, Disney tried to adapt the Pamela Travers novel Mary Poppins into a film. However, the author Travers had absolutely no interest in selling Mary Poppins to Hollywood. To win her over, Disney visited Travers at her England home repeatedly for the next 16 years. After more than a decade-and-a-half of persuasion, Travers was overcome by Disney’s charm and vision for the film, and finally gave him permission to bring Mary Poppins to the big screen. The result is a timeless classic.

Wow ! Now that’s perseverence.

So my challenge today …

In what area do you need to remind yourself of the end goal and to keep on walking / running one step and one day at a time towards it ?

Mr or Mrs Incredible

Do you remember the dreams you had as a kid? How you were going to conquer the world? How your life was going to be filled with amazing experiences and adventures?

Don’t you find it funny that when you’re a child and you say you want to be an astronaut, your parents tell you that you can be anything you want to be. It’s harmless. Like telling a child that Santa Claus exists.

But when you’re 25 and you tell people you are going to leave work to do x, y or z or when you tell them you want to start to be a x,y or z … the response is different. “Be realistic”. “That is not practical”. “You SHOULD do …. ” And all these comments lead to the same end – you end up doing the things you felt you should do and that in some way force you to compromise those dreams?

What if you didn’t have to live each day feeling like you’ve made a compromise?
What if you actually did what you wanted and dreamt of ?
What if you didn’t have to feel like you were missing out ever again?
How has being “realistic” or “responsible” kept you from the life you want ?
How has doing what you “should” resulted in experiences or regrets for not having done something else ?

I believe it starts with a decision. A decision to actually DARE to Dream. Absolutely, there is wisdom involved and strategy and planning. And absolutely dreams turn very fast into hardwork and diligence and commitment. But this is a mindset. A paradigm. A point of view. And that is the challenge. We think that doing what we love and dream of is mutually exclusive and inconsistent with everything else in our lives – our responsibilities, various financial considerations and so on and so forth. But yet we read plenty of people pursing their passion and making a great living out of it and having the freedom of choice we all want. So it can be done.

So Mr or Mrs Incredible … the challenge is there … and it starts by DARING to dream and follow your dreams …